Accepting that the challenges posed by Covid-19 induced worldwide lockdown has been tough on his workforce which could result in many getting burnt out, Alphabet’s Google CEO Sundar Pichai asked all employees to take a day off on May 22.
Pichai conveyed his strategy via an internal email and indicated that many of the company’s offices would slowly begin functioning by June with only 10% to 15% of the workforce at any given time.
The majority of people who could continue working from home would be allowed to do so, probably through the end of the year.
“We’re starting to really get the hang of these virtual meetings, though I do miss the experience of having so many of us in the same place,” Pichai wrote in an email to full-time employees on Thursday night. “It may be a while before that’s possible. Our ramp back to the office will be slow, deliberate and incremental.”
This news comes after Pichai previously told workers offices would remain closed until at least June 1, when the company would begin enacting a “staggered” approach to returning workers based on the latest conditions of the pandemic.
Less than 5% staff in offices
The reason many employees were eager to resume work at the office locations was to access the campuses’ many amenities they’ve gone without since working from home.
At the moment the company has less than 5% of global employees working from offices. Some sites in the Asia Pacific region are already at 30% of capacity “given where they are in their stage of dealing with this epidemic," Pichai wrote in his email.
The first employees to return will be those whose jobs require them to be in the office, such as those who need access to special equipment.
However, those locations where May 22 is not a workday, employees were urged to check with their managers and work out a suitable holiday date in May.
Recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had told the company’s employees that they would be allowed to continue to work from home through the end of 2020.
Via Cnbc.com
